Stripping Down
by Out-of-Character217
Summary: There is a line. Once you are past it, there is no going back.


**A/N:** This has to be, what, at least the 300th time I've imagined my OTP getting together in this way and I'm still not sick of it? How is that even possible? In any case I don't suppose it matters overly much. (Takes out thermometer to check daily life levels.) Yep, still normal. My obsession isn't life threatening… _yet._

If it pleases you, I'd recommend reading this whilst listening to Berlin by RY X. It is truly haunting and although the lyrics bare no real relation to the content of the story, the whole feel of the piece matches quite beautifully.

Enjoy. Xxx

**Disclaimer: **All characters and places belong to Square Enix and/or Disney. No infringement intended, no profit made.

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**Stripping Down**

Cloud crushed himself against Leon. Using arms filled with superior strength, he wound his awkward limbs under the older man's, letting his fingers drag over goose-bumped flesh and his lips graze over a dry and slightly chapped mouth. It seemed to him that everything about the quiet brunet was chapped and raw. The way he spoke (and the way he didn't). The way he worked: with endless frustrated efficiency. The way he caught Cloud's cheek in that work roughened hand, the calluses tugging at the peach soft skin. The way he was so hurried, his movement jerky and inelegant as they had disrobed, as if eagerness and inexperience had rusted his joints. None of it was perfect, and yet, everything about the man simply _was_.

With a bold and refreshing stab of lust, Cloud turned them both, swinging their momentum round to his advantage. He pushed down at the last moment, tripping Leon into bed, and followed him down, covering the older man with his own starved body. He let his hands free, feeling over smooth skin and hard muscle, enjoying the contours of Leon's work hardened body that so closely mirrored his own. He worked his mouth down over the thickly scented column of Leon's throat, breathing in the smell of him, letting the taste of him spill over his tongue as he dabbed the appendage out to lick teasingly against his adam's apple; savouring the feeling of barely there stubble against his lips. He felt the ghost of a breath past his ear and the first stirrings of a moan as his hand wandered lower, teasing the skin of Leon's hip and the flesh pulled tight over the protruding bone.

A chaste kiss was pressed to Cloud's temple before Leon collapsed back, his hips rocking in time with Cloud's, his hands taking turns between fisting the flesh of the blond's buttocks and the golden hair at the nape of his neck. He let the younger man cover him, devour him with his body. It had been so long since anyone had been this close to him; skin to skin.

Leon felt that hot mouth slid over his pectoral, terrifyingly close to his nipple when the blond's ministrations stopped. The soft but urgent rocking of Cloud's hips slowed and the warmth of the man's breath left his skin, making Leon shiver as it cooled. The gunblader nearly let out a curse. Looking up, the small admonishment died on his lips as he saw Cloud's concerned eyes, their luminescent quality gleaming in the half light of the street lamps outside.

'Why'd you stop?' Leon asked instead, following the disquieted gaze to his own chest and the tangled web of hideous scar tissue that kept it from being flawless. Underneath that mangled flesh, Leon's heart sank. 'An ice spell.' He offered lamely, feeling all of a sudden very exposed: a ridiculous notion, considering their state of undress.

Cloud's eyes traced the bloodless white edges of the scar, following it round and finally taking it all in. He'd had no idea of the size of it. The feel of it, under his lips as he'd traced his hungry kisses towards a nipple had felt hard and calloused, like the gunblader's hands, and it had shocked him. Where he had expected to find smooth, flawless skin he had encountered a token: a reminder that despite appearances, not all was perfect. In his own mind, Cloud himself was far from flawless. He had more scars than anyone had a right to have, yet, with the same strange magic that allowed his eyes to glow so beautifully, his scars had been healed just as smoothly; only the faintest of silvery lines could been seen etched into his own milky skin. He had nothing like this. The scar that marred the man in front of him was terrible. 'They couldn't heal it?' he asked, tracing a light finger over a patch of skin that should have been his sternum.

'I was taken prisoner. It was left to heal on its own.' Leon replied, his voice tight and guarded now. The heat that had been between them only moments before was fading fast.

Long moments passed in uncomfortable silence, the expected exchanges of kisses and fucking replaced with tense stares and long breathless minutes. Finally, just as Cloud was about to reach out a hand, Leon stirred. Breaking eye contact he cut his gaze away to the side, his whole body ridged and anxious. 'Will you quit looking so much?' he chided self-consciously.

The uncomfortable spell that had held Cloud fascinated for so long was broken, and his eyes flickered from Leon's ruined chest to look at the man who lay under him, trembling now not from passion and lust, or even from the cold; he felt the man's body twitch with nervous energy and felt the man's hidden but none-the-less palpable desire to be anywhere but there, with Cloud.

Reaching out uncertainly, not knowing if this thing between them was even reclaimable, he laced his fingers with the gunblader's, whose hand lay lax and unresponsive against the frigid bed sheets. Curling his fingers with Leon's he bent his head and kissed the very centre of the scar. Letting his breath warm the skin there, he worked his way out, kissing his way towards that nipple, finally taking it into his mouth. He felt Leon's fingers clench his own, tightening the grip. He felt the brunet lift their joined hands, running the back of Cloud's hand over his cheek and kiss the knuckles, before his hips came to life again and all at once, that fire was stoked and eager lust returned to them.

With no more thoughts of scars and battles and prisoners and human life so easily stolen, Cloud allowed himself to take his new lover. Poised on the brink, eyes locked with Leon's, asking silent permission to enter, he halted for the briefest of moments. 'Do you want me to stop?' he asked, a slight tease to the upturn of his mouth.

'It's a little late for that.' Leon replied in all seriousness, no humour to be found in his shining grey eyes.

Cloud understood and silently agreed: yes, it was far too late to go back now.


End file.
